Why fears have been raised that Derbyshire might end up hosting a nuclear waste facility. “It was an area suggested for such a facility around 25 years ago.” A geological formation in Derbyshire could be considered for a nuclear waste facility, it is feared. The Government is scouring the UK for a suitable location for a new £12 billion geological disposal facility (GDF). Cumbria was being lined up to to store an estimated 750,000 cubic metres of radioactive material produced by 50 years of nuclear power and defence activity – but its county council rejected the idea in 2013, forcing the Government to search for a new location. Now a neighbouring council has discussed hosting the nuclear waste dumping facility in a sedimentary basin known as the Widmerpool Gulf – which extends across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. A response to a Government package of incentives designed to get communities to agree to ‘host’ a storage complex has been discussed by Leicestershire County Council, reports the Leicester Mercury. Any facility would look to bury waste at least 200 metres below ground somewhere in a geological area which stretches from the eastern fringes of Derby across the countryside to the south of Nottingham and on to the west of Melton Mowbray in north Leicestershire. Leicestershire County Council has said there are no specific proposals for a GDF in Leicestershire at this stage but it has asked for further information on the issue from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The council’s head of planning Lonek Wojtulewicz said: “The underlying principle is these sort of facilities will only come forward if communities are prepared to accept them.” The Government has said £1 million a year could be offered to a community willing to host a GDF rising to £2.5 million as a scheme progresses.
Derby Telegraph 16th April 2018 read more »
Is the government planning to put a nuclear waste dump in south Nottinghamshire? “These sort of facilities will only come forward if communities are prepared to accept them.” Fears have been raised that a nuclear waste dumping facility could be built in land south of Nottingham.
Nottingham Post 16th April 2018 read more »